Premier League Match 2 - Southampton 0 Nottingham Forest 1

 

And then it all went Tits Up When the Game Started

First game back at St Mary’s after a promotion and everyone is hoping that as fans, we give Nottingham Forest, the West Brom treatment. Oh, hang on a minute. The club have dropped a little bit of a bollocks here because they made a big deal about the atmosphere created against West Brom and how brilliant it was and how helpful it was.. but now everyone is being told not to bring the flares and not around at the atmosphere because the club will get a huge fine from the Premier League killjoys. It will be interesting to see if that particular cat can be put back in the bag.

On the pitch and Nottingham Forest is a game that we have to target a win from for at least to pick up our first point of the season. Forest survived a points deduction last season and avoided relegation and will be hoping that under Nuno Espírito Santo, they could be comfortably in mid table and not even in the conversation this season. They opened up last week at home to Bournemouth and were pegged back by an 87th minute equaliser, having taken the lead through blunt instrument Chris Wood. Wood is supported these days by a trio of decent attacking options in Callum Hudson Odoi, Morgan Gibbs White and Anthony Elanga. It could be an open game given the attacking talents on show, or it could be a very cagey effort as both teams realise the importance of not getting beat today.

Another week and another new signing with the arrival of 20-year-old Mateus Fernandes from Sporting Lisbon.  None of the ITK transfer aficionados / bullshit merchants had been linking this one to us until just before it happened.  He will go into direct competition with Will Smallbone and Joe Aribo and it remains to be seen whether, assuming he gets in the team, he can provide the creativity that we are lacking at the moment. With this being in addition to the recent acquisition of Lesley Ugochukwu, we now seem to be very well stocked in midfield, so much so that Shea Charles is 99% certain to be allowed to go on loan to Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship for the season.

The way I feel about Shea is that we have been promoted one season two early for him and that this is a very good move for him, having picked up a fair bit of experience in the Championship last season. Sheffield Wednesday are probably going to be a decent side in that division this year and as long as he gets regular game time, he should improve. The guy has a very high ceiling and this will hopefully be the making of him.

We now have five genuine midfield options for three positions - Downes, Aribo, Smallbone, Fernándes and Ugochukwu. We know that Flynn Downes is going to play as long as he is fit so more often than not it’s going to be two from four.   Maybe not though because in addition to those mentioned, you of course have Adam Lallana and Tyler Dibling which is why I think there’s rumours that are persisting of James Ward-Prowse coming back on loan from West Ham, are bollocks.

The exit door beckoned for Sekou Mara and Strasbourg pulled him through it, throwing us £10 million quid in return. This is virtually what we paid for the player two years ago and in those two years, he hasn’t done enough to suggest he’ll turn any potential into anything worth keeping. I am amazed we have not lost any money on him and it’s definitely a good move for us, for him and it remains to be seen whether it’s a good move for Strasbourg. Sekou had a few flashes of brilliance during his two years at Southampton but the overriding memory will be that of a player who had numerous chances and never really made the most of them. For me, he was always a player who never really looked like he knew the standards that he had to reach every time he stepped on the pitch. When you are a fringe player, every opportunity to step onto the pitch has to be grasped with both hands and at times he just looked like he didn’t have a clue that he had to actually put in some effort. Some of the rare highlights were a very good finish against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup (not his fault but it kept Nathan Jones in a job for a few extra weeks), an FA Cup goal against Watford last year blasted in from about 25 yards and a brilliant through ball in the Premier League in his second game, to give KWP a goal at home to Leeds.

I can’t imagine that this one is going to sting at some point in the future though there is a parallel universe where we wake up and the year is 2032 and Sekou Mara has just broken Olivier Giroud’s long standing French national team goal scoring record. At least he stayed fit enough for us to get him out the door, unlike his fellow chuckle brother, Kamaldeen Sulemana.

Same starting XI for us though hopefully we’ll be playing in a different way to last week and be looking to take the game to Forest.  The ground has changed of course with safe standing in the whole of the Northam End.  It looks decent from the opposite end of the pitch where I am.  The club have really done well there to push past any obstacles and get that done. It’s slightly weird having the away fans off to my left I have to say but as has always been the case in my fifty years of going to football matches, they’ll be quiet if we give them nothing to get excited about.
Here we fucking go - Forest look the more dangerous team from the start with Callum Hudson-Odoi cut it in from the left and finding Williams out on the right.  A quick 1-2 and gets in far too easily and is bearing down on McCarthy from a narrow angle but the keeper blocks it off for a corner. Ben Brereton Diaz has tracked Williams all the way back and he’s closest to him which tells me that all forwards are being detailed to follow the full backs all the way back. Hmmm.

Brereton Diaz gets a chance to run at the right hand side of Forest defence, which he does with purpose and the ball eventually finds its way to KWP on the edge of the box and his shot flicks of a defender and goes over.  The momentum is lost as Will Smallbone picks out the first defender at the near post in a rerun of every corner we had last week. You have to admire Yuki Sugawara’s optimism as his left foot volley lands closer to his Japanese homeland than it does to the back of the net.

Saints are committing bodies forward but lose the ball and a Championship v Premier League difference is highlighted Aina bursts forward from left back, exchanges passes with Hudson Odoi and Bednarek can’t get over quick enough and Aina is away.  He gets to the left-hand edge of the penalty area before chipping it to the back post and Chris Wood could only thump the header straight at McCarthy. I don’t remember Bednarek getting caught out like that once last season and it’s an indicator of the different levels.

More Forest pressure and we repel a couple of crosses before Sangare picks it up 30 yards out and decides to try his luck with McCarthy having to tip it over the bar. Milinković wins the header at the near post and it flicks off of someone and goes for another corner the other side and we don’t defend that one convincingly either as the ball pings around after a couple of missed clearances and Gibbs-White eventually puts it over.

More Forest pressure and another corner and more carnage and the ball is eventually fired into the box by Williams and bounces to Wood on the right of the 6 yard box. He fires it across and there are three Forest players queueing up to tap in but the ball hits the shin of Milinković and goes wide. We are so lucky to get away with that.

Time for a rare attack and KWP gets the ball out on the left and then cuts across the top of the box and works space for a shot before drilling it straight down the goalkeepers throat. It’s a relative positive end to what hasn’t particularly been a positive half but we’ve had a good look at what’s required and the good news is that we are still at 0-0.

I Couldn't Find a Picture of a Forest Centre Back in a Challenge

Half-time in the worrying bit for me is that we have not bothered their central defenders at all Our tactical set up it’s really fucking bizarre because there is absolutely no one playing as a central striker. Like at Newcastle last week, we are trying to score a goal without a number 9 and without a number 10. The two players who are supposed to be our forward players, Adam Armstrong and Ben Brereton Diaz are hardly in the game.

The second half starts quite positively with Brereton Diaz fallen fouled by Sangare’s third attempt at hacking down a Saints player.  KWP eventually gets the ball and does the fast foot shuffle before seeing a shot blocked by a corner. We tried a short corner routine this time which was equally as bad as the corners we have put into the box.

A loose Smallbone pass in midfield sets Forest away towards our goal with Elanga running headlong at the defence before Stephens dives in with an excellent block to take it out for a corner. Defending from all three of our central defenders as largely been excellent but there’s a bit too much pressure coming down on them.  If any team is going to score then it isn’t us.

THB has mixed solid with shaky and he gives a ball away on her right with Hudson Odoi‘s cross being controlled and volleyed by wood and forest win another corner. In it comes from Elanga, headed clear as far as Williams and his shot is blocked.  Aribo should clear it but he’s not strong enough and hits the deck – never a foul.  In it comes again from Hudson Odoi headed down by Gibbs-White, half cleared and straight back to him, fuck, unmarked five yards out.  What an absolutely shit goal.  Aribo should clear it and when the cross comes in to Gibbs-White but when he doesn’t and the cross comes back in, we have six players in the penalty area just ball watching.

20 minutes ago so what have we got.  Adam Armstrong has had one of those games where he just doesn’t look good enough and so off he comes for Sam Edozie and soon after, Sugawara is replaced with Cameron Archer. Like last week Russell leaves all three central defenders on the pitch with Jack Stephens is going to left back.  That lasts one more attack as Elanga gets a run at Stephens and absolutely barbeques him before being crowded out. We just about get away with that one before THB is substituted along with what has become a midfield dead-zone of Smallbone and Aribo.  On comes a proper left back in Charlie Taylor and Mateus Fernandes and Tyler Dibling to get us going forward from midfield rather than sideways.

We now have a presence in the middle of the attack and Stephens brings the ball forward and passes into Archer’s feet.   That’s a first for today.  Out to BBD on the left and more by luck than judgement, we get the ball out to Charlie Taylor and his low cross is inches in front of Archer sliding in. 87 minutes and we finally made Forest sweat a bit.

Six minutes of injury time and we don’t force Sels into a save.  I didn’t even know the keepers name to be honest and I guess those watching on TV around the world wouldn’t know who he was either as he hasn’t done anything.  There doesn’t seem to be any belief in the team that we can score and there’s certainly very little expectation in the crowd.  There’s none from me.  I’ve got pretty good at knowing when it isn’t happening over the years – when you have a lack of players gambling and getting in goalscoring areas, it’s usually not happening…. And that’s the end.

I Will Win This Game Without a 9 or a 10

Breaking the 4^th Wall or whatever here, but I know that I’m going to find it difficult to write this next part.  On the one hand you don’t want to be too negative because it’s the first game back in the Premier League and only the second game of the season.  On the other hand, you have to look at the game in isolation and it really was monumentally shit on all kinds of levels.  So, here goes…

In 2012 when we last got promoted to the Premier League, we lost at Manchester City as expected in the first game and then were at home to Wigan in the first home game and the expectation was there for a performance and a win.  On that day we got outplayed and had a major wake up call with a 2-0 defeat.  Well that was somewhat deflating and today had the same energy. There really wasn’t a lot about that performance that you can put in the positive column. A few individual performances were decent and offered hope, like the appearances of Mateus Fernandes and Tyler Dibling off of the bench and also Cameron Archer giving us a bit of a presence at centre forward. The defence was solid and Flynn Downes was outstanding especially given that Forest midfielders were trying to get him sent off for the moment he got booked towards the end of the first half.  Other than that it was dreadful, to be honest.

I am completely at a loss as to what the fuck that was from a tactical perspective. You are never going to win a game at Premier League level if you don’t have a presence in and around the central defenders of the opposition. I’d love to know how Russell thought we were going to score a goal with our two strikers playing 50 yards apart on either wing. I just don’t understand the logic. I remember Ralph Hasenhüttl talking about the ‘Red Zone’, where statistically, most goals are scored from.  Roughly, the ‘Red Zone’ was central, from the edge of the box to the six-yard line.  Who was going to break into the danger area and get in and around the penalty spot and score a goal? Certainly not BBD or Armstrong as they were too wide and even if the play was on the opposite wing, neither appeared in the centre forward position.  There was no way Aribo or Smallbone have the energy to get there and if they do, they aren’t quick enough to get back. The one midfielder who got in the box was Flynn Downes in the first half and when we lost the ball, Forest counter-attacked with all three of our midfielders completely out of the game.

When you play three at the back with wing-backs, the wing-backs have to supply the width going forward but whenever Sugawara or KWP got forward, they had a striker occupying the place where they would normally run into. In addition to that, you often had one of the number eight midfielders over there as well, so on the left we had KWP, Aribo and BBD all within five or six yards of the touchline.  Adam Armstrong meanwhile, while that was going on, was in between the fullback and the furthest centre back from the ball and there was absolutely no one in the middle…. xG of 0.000000000001… actually it was 0.2

If it was the opposition that had played like that, I’d be saying that they set up for 0-0 from the first whistle but when teams do come and set up for 0-0, they usually have one guy as a central striker and then about 50 yards between him and the midfield.  It might not work but that always have that one guy just to give them a slight hope of nicking a goal. I’ve never seen it done in such a bizarre way as we did it today and I am at a total loss as to how that system was supposed to work and how we were supposed to score.  We are trying to score, without a number 9 and without a number 10 - not even  false 9.  We've played this way in the Getafe friendly and in the opening two league games - no goals and not much sign of one.

Defensively we are okay but we are miles off it as an attacking side. No one wants to be too negative at the start of a season but this is not exactly unexpected given the players we have got at the top end of the pitch. BBD at least ran forward with intent but he needs to be playing nearer to the goal. Joe Aribo put himself about strongly but towards the end of the first half, the game just started passing him by and he ultimately made the mistake that led to the Forest goal.  Will Smallbone did a couple of nice things but otherwise really struggled and he disappeared completely, with his first thought always to play a safety first wall pass straight back to where it came from.  On quite a few occasions, one of the centre backs would break the lines and beat the press and then Will would pass it straight back, bringing any players who were out of the game, right back into it again.  That’s not enough when you are one of the four players nearest to the opposition goal.  The difference when Tyler Dibling came on was remarkable because he is always scanning round looking where the gaps are and looking to drive forward. Both he and Fernandes showed the way to do it.  Maybe not from the start yet but it won’t be long.

Adam Armstrong is a big worry. Russell Martin knows that he is a big worry as well because at 1-0 down, the first substitution was to take him off. Armstrong is supposed to be “The Man” most likely to score us a goal so the fact that he chose to take him off it’s quite telling.  He struggled big time today and over the two games we’ve had so far is done nothing to dispel the fear that he is just not good enough at this level.  Part of it was tactical but he looks to have no confidence in himself and his touch was loose, which you cannot afford to do at Premier League level because better defenders will just take the ball off you.  He needs to get his head round playing in this division and needs to do it quickly.  This season is really his last chance to do it at this level because if he fails this season, it's hard to see him being given another chance by us or anyone else in the top flight.

Basically, we didn’t stretch the Forest defence at all until the introduction of Dibling, Fernandes and Archer. It wasn’t until the 85th minute that the Forest goalkeeper was in anyway extended and that was just to pluck a cross out of the air.  Archer came closest to scoring from Taylor’s driven cross but overall, I didn’t feel like we were going to score at all, in much the same way that I felt up in Newcastle last week. Performances like that at home with zero goal threat against a pretty average Premier League team, are not going to be acceptable going forward.

Forest were okay but nothing more. Surprisingly, they are a bit more expansive than they used to be under Steve Cooper and are very quick on the break with Hudson-Odoi and Elanga. They probably should’ve scored more and would’ve done but from some decent defending. Alex McCarthy was by far the busier of the two goalkeepers and Forest deserved to win and 1-0 flattered us.  Though Forest weren’t brilliant, they were considerably better than any team we played at St Mary‘s in the Championship last season. We are going to play many better teams than them this season and we have to be better ourselves. Russell Martin talks about a lot about bravery but the way we set out today wasn’t brave for a home game against Forest. It was very cautious and remained so until we went behind.

The learning curve is unforgiving in the Premier League but learn we must, all of Sport Republic, Russell Martin and the players.  We have to give ourselves the chance to win games and that is a club wide thing.  Players in, players out, tough decisions to be made by the manager, bravery and standards being better.

So, the last week of the transfer window, a midweek Carabao trip to Cardiff and an away game at the scene of Nathan Jones’ legendary Brentford press conference.

Up the Fucking Saints